and hay. But Mr. Robfon was not at a lofs to account for the increased price of every thing, nor for the evils under which the people laboured. It was to be afcribed to the accumulation of taxes, and to the enormous increafe of fictitious property. The farmer was compelled, to a certain degree, to raise the price of every thing that his farm produces. He could not help himelf. The plain truth was, that the weight of taxes had abfolutely fubdued the pride, not only of the farmer, but of all the independent part of the country. He repeated to the chancellor of the exchequer, and would repeat it at all times, that in his adminiftration, the mid dling part of the people ceafed to exift. Much had been faid concerning the poor. He was at a loss to know what the poor meant. The denomination of the poor now extended half up the ranks of life. Pertons polleffing from 2007 to 7007. a year, must now be classed among the poor. Another caufe which contributed confiderably to the dearness of every thing, was the immenfe quantity of fictitious paper circulated by country banks. Mr. Robfon knew an inftance of a farmer who owed a large arrear of rent, but who would neither pay it nor take his corn to market. Being preffed on the fubje&t by his landlord, he went to the next town, to one of thofe banks, of which there were feveral in moft towns, borrowed the money on his note at two months, paid his rent, and withheld his corn from market. To fuch a height did country banks, of which there were from four to five hundred in the kingdom, extend their fictitious currency, that he had in his poffeffion one of their notes, promifing to pay a guinea in BANK-PAPER. On the whole, Mr. Robfon was of opinion, that relief to the public, not only in bread, but all the neceffaries of life, was to be expected from nothing but peace. The permanent taxes, the vaft increase of fictitious property, the determination of minilters not to make peace, and their inability to manage the affairs of the nation, were the caufes of our calamities. Mr. Hardinge faid that he had paid every attention to the obfervations both of the honourable baronet Fy one other movement, in the progrefs of artificial money, a note might be given, payable in a note of one or other country bank, and so on, poffibly, through other fazes. Money which was wont to be a phyfical, has now abfolutely become for the ft part, and indeed, almoft wholly, a metaphyfical thing: and the Act of Faith, in which it confifts, is expreffed with great propriety on the thinneft paper, the exility of which feems to hold a middle place between the fpiritual world and the folidity of matter. According to certain theorists in political economy, the facility of multiplying the figns of wealth is of no confequence, becaufe money will always find its level. Tree, it will do fo. But when? The poor labourer does not find it fo safy a matter to raise his wages, as government, and other bodies, or great cap talifts do, to pour down upon him a fresh inundation of paper-money. It is a noted obfervation corruptio eptimi fima. This engine of paper money, a novelty in Europe the gh not in India and China, it was that established, in the form of affignats, the French revolution. The fame engine, indeed, enabled Britain to refift it: a happy effecì if its contagion could not otherwife be evaded; but a dangerous facility of going to war in general. This facility of creating money, may, in its farther progreffion, be pushed into confeqences that hall bring at last a thing good, if ufed with moderation, into utter difcredit. and and the gentleman who had fupported him: but that they had miftaken the object of the motion, which related merely to the propriety of an addrefs to his majefty, thanking him for his paternal care in calling his parliament together, to confider the ftate of the country, and provide the means of relieving the people from the effects of the prefent fcarcity. Many of their obfervations were of weight, but they would be brought forward with more propriety when the fubjects to which they referred came regularly under difcuffion. The propriety of keeping clofe to the queflion in hand, was alfo fhewn at great, and indeed fuperfluous length by Mr. Pitt, who, with equal perfpicuity pointed out the two great and leading topics which the fpeech from the throne comprehended: the difficulties under which the public now laboured from the fearcity and high price of provifions; and the recent communications that had taken place with the enemy, which brought under review, in regular progrefs, the important queftion of peace or war. For the relief of the public he propofed two modes which, he thought, were fimple, practical, and fafe. One was, an increase of importation: the other, a combination of economy with the ufe of fubftitutes for wheaten bread. From thefe methods, a much better effect was to be expected than from any experiments which, on pretence of correcting the evil of monopoly, might ftrike at the freedom of trade, and circumfcribe the application of induftry and capital. Their agreeing to thele preliminary steps by no means precluded farther inquiry or more deliberate determination. But, at prefent, no procraftination, no inquiry could be neceflary to authorize the expedients propofed. With regard to the caufes by which the prefent high price was occafioned there were many opinions. Some whofe motives were unqueftionable, and the humanity of whofe views was confpicuous, might have been led, with the pureft intentions, to give encouragement to the errors, and a farction to the clamours which had prevailed on the fubject. Others, whole motives were more doubtful, had endeavoured to combine two diftinct grounds of prejudice, and to connect the fcarcity with the war. But the caufes of the fcarcity, and the policy and neceffity of the war, were diftinct fubjects of confideration: and none would blend the difcuffion of the latter with that of the former, who wished only to communicate information, and fuggeft remedies. But, fince the queltion had been started, he begged leave to fuggeft a few general obfervations, which feemed completely to overthrow the argument of thofe, if there were any, who ferioufly imputed the dearness of provifions to the war. Here Mr. Pitt, from a comparifon of the prices of grain, at different periods of the prefent war (though the argument would be ftrengthened by a review of former wars), endeavoured to fhew that war, of itself, had no evident or neceffary connexion with the dearnefs of provifions, and that there could be no reafon for combining the fcarcity with the diftinct inquiry refpecting the policy of the war. The reafoning of Mr. Pitt, on this fubject, was the fame with that of lord Hobart, in the house of peers, already ftated. As to the extent of the deficiency of the late harveft harvest, Mr. Pitt thought that it would be no lefs rash then unnecellary to give any opinion. For the practical purposes propofed, a knowledge of the precife deficit was not neceffary. Laft year the crops failed almoft generally, in all the articles of provifion. This year wheat was fhort: but feveral other kinds of grain, particularly barley, plentiful, both at home and abroad. By a due application of the refources of econoniy and other fubftitutes, joined to importation, he was fatisfied that the fupplies of the year would be made to answer the confumption. He trufted, therefore, that one of their first measures would be to go into a committee of the whole houfe, to fix the quantum of bounty to be allowed on importation; that a felect committee fhould be appointed to inveftigate the fubject of the scarcity, to which committee fhould be referred the part of the king's fpeech which referred to that point; and that the committee fhould, from time to time, propofe fuch meafures as, from the refult of their inquiries, fhould feem fit to be adopted. On the question of peace or war, Mr. Pitt only obferved, that, as the papers on which the merits of the cale must be decided, were not yet before the house, it would be pre mature. Mr. Sheridan did not object to the addrefs; nor yet would his honourable friend, the honourable baronet near him (fir F. Burdett), had he given close attention to it: for it conLained nothing refpecting the fince rity of minifters in their efforts to refore peace, but merely an approbation of that fentiment of the fpeech which expreffed his majefty's determination to use all means that 1 might be in his power to refiore fuch a peace to the country, as would be confiftent with its peace and fecurity. The fuggeftion refpecting inportation feemed to be well timed and politic. And the language of the (peech and of the minifter this night, refpecting an examination of the laws against foreftallers and regrators, was wife and manly. But from the minifter he differed widely in his opinion, that the high price of provifions was neither caufed by the war nor the taxes. He allowed that, at a mo ment like the prefent, it was incumbent on the houfe fimply to look at the queftion of the high price of provifions, and to inquire how the evils which the country fuffered could be most effectually cured. Yet they ought not to fkim over matters: it was indeed the duty of the house to find the people bread; but it was alfo their duty to find them the truth. If war was not alone the caufe of the prefent high price of provifions, it was certainly an aggravation of the fufferings of the people. The war then ought to be difcontinued. Would it be denied, that while there were 300,000 men employed in the navy and army, there was not, of neceflity, a confiderable wafte of provifions? Every man employed in fuch fervice, caufed, perhaps, a confumption of five times as much provifions as was ufed by the fame number of individuals in time of peace. But, fuppofing it to be only four, or three times greater, and that they added the probable wafte in the navy, the transport fervice, the victualling office, in barracks for the cavalry, regulars, and volunteers, and in general throughout the domeftic departments of our warlike fyftem, there was was no man, any thing in the fhape' of a minifter, who would deny that war was a caufe of fcarcity and dearnels. "God forbid," faid Mr. Sheridan, "that the war fhould not be the caufe! for, if it be not, the fituation of the country is deplorable indeed. But, believing that the war is the great caufe of our fufferings, I hope that the houfe, finding it to be fo, will ferioufly be inclined to feek relief in peace. The great argument made ufe of to fhew that there was no neceflary connexion between war and the fcarcity and dearnefs of provifions was combated, and it would appear with not a little fuccefs, by Mr. Nichols. It appeared, he faid, that, in 1793 and 1794, the agents of government had introduced too little corn from abroad: from whence arose a scarcity in the fpring of the year 1795. The fcarcity that took place in May, in that year, was not the confequence of a bad harvest in the preceding year, but of an infufficient introduction of corn in the years 1793 and 1794. The agents redoubled their activity in the fubfequent part of 1795. But the introduction was ftill unequal to the demand. And the confequence was, that the minifter fignified to the corn-dealers, that he would abandon the trade, if they would refume it. The dealers did refume it, and they imported, in the year 1796, a greater quantity than the moft fanguine imagination expected; the importation amounted to 1,086,000 quarters. What was then the conduct of the minifter? The corn-dealers fay, he broke his faith with them: for with 70,000, which his own agents had bought, and 80,000 more, which he had on hand, he funk the price of corn 21. 16s. a quarter. This gave birth to the fecond famine. This fecond famine, which took place in 1799, was early enough forefeen. Why was not corn fent for? The dealers would not truft the minifter. They did not fend while the Baltic was open. If they had, the famine would not have broken out fo early. But the minifter had' faid that, in 1797 and 1798, corn was cheap. True, but we had, in 1796, an importation of 1,086,000 quarters. With refpect to the frugality recommended in the confumption of corn, Mr. Nichols obferved, that we had to pay from 3 to 400,000 foldiers and failors, who certainly confumed more than they did in thofe employments from which they had been taken, by the war. The men under fir Ralph Abercromby were fed with animal food, and with wheaten bread. In the cottages which they inhabited before the war, their ufual fare was, perhaps, neither animal food nor wheaten bread. If they were Irishmen, their food confifted of potatoes and butter-milk. If Scotchmen, they had lived, probably, on oatmeal, barley bread, and herrings. If, therefore, they meant to adopt a real system of frugality, they muft reduce the number of their foldiers and failors. Mr. Grey agreed with his honourable friend, fir Francis Burdett, that there was no effectual remedy but a peace. Mr. Pitt had concluded that war could have no peculiar effect to enhance the price of provisions, becaufe wheat was cheap in 1797. But it appeared, he faid, from the most authentic documents, that all kind of corn was dearer during the courfe of the feven years of war, than during the feven years that 'preceded it; and that, exclufively of the years of particular fcarcity, which we had lately experienced, wheat had been eight fhillings per quarter higher during the five cheapest years of the prefent war, than it was between 1788 and 1793. War muft neceffarily tend, in various ways, to produce fymptoms of fcarcity. Thousands were taken from laborious and productive occupations to run idle, and confume what was produced by the labour of others. If each of them did not exactly eat five times as much as he did before, yet certainly the effect which his change of life produced, in bring ing on a fcarcity, was as great as if he did: for, inftead of living on vegetable diet, he muft now be fed with beef and mutton; and it was well known that it required five times as much land to maintain one who lives on animal food, as another who tafies nothing but vegetables. Steadily adhering to the principles of Dr. Adam Smith, he maintained that, in general, all apprehenfion from unfair dealing was chimerical. In time of peace, he said, the demand is conftant and regular; and fpeculation never will be extended beyond the wants of the community; but, in time of war, fleets are to be victualled, armies fuddenly called together are to be ted, and expeditions are frequently fitted out: thus a spirit of adventure is generated, and enterprifing men may take advantage of the facility of raifing money to fpeculate to an anexceptionable degree. After a philippic on miniftry, through whole mifconduct, he afferted, the war had been unfuccessful, and every enter prife failed, while the country, through their continued attempts, groaned under a heavy load of mifery, he concluded with moving, as an amendment, "That the laft fentence in the addrefs fhould be left out." That fentence was as follows: "Concurring with your majefty in the anxiety which your majefty entertains for the fpeedy reftoration of peace, we fhall see, with the utmoft fatisfaction, the adoption of all fuch measures as may beft tend to promote and accelerate that defirable end, confiftently with the honour of this country, and the true interefts of your people; but if the difpofition of our enemies fhould continue to render it unattainable, without the facrifice of thefe effential confiderations. we fhall feel it our indifpenfable duty to perfevere in affording your majesty the most zealous and effectual fupport, and to omit no exertion on our part, which can enable your majefty, under the bleffing of Providence, to conduct this important conteft to a profperous conclufion, and to maintain, unimpaired, the fecurity and honour of these kingdoms." Mr. Grey, in the courfe of his fpeech, had called particularly on that right honourable gentleman, who had the more immediate direction of military affairs, to inform them, in what manner he had used the truft confided in him? He had the uncontrolled command of a mighty army, and he profeffed his fenfe of the neceffity for executing fome great enterprize; yet, in no one inftance, had he gained an object which could, in any degree, contribute to the fuccefs of the war." In reference to this, Mr. fecretary Dundas faid, that he had come down to the house. with the perfuafion that he should not have any occafion to speak. He found it, however, impoffible to refift the peremptory call upon him by |